Between Sounds And Silence
by Topazeyedsoul
Summary: Her life was a loud mess. His life was comfortable silence. While running away from her parents' argument, Bella meets Edward. They help each other and try to find harmony between their differences. AU/AH. BxE. ONE-SHOT.


**A.N: **This winter is really making me blue and bored. Here's another one-shot to pass the time…

**Disclaimer**: Stephanie Meyer owns _Twilight_.

**Between Sounds And Silence**

Bella watched the heavy rain fall from the sky through her window and tried to focus on the loud sounds that would come together: the lightning strikes, the wind making whoosh sounds, the water drops hitting the glass. The "plic plic plic" sounds were immensely preferable to the yells and curses coming from her parents' discussion that was happening in the living room, which was reaching not so polite levels.

Every time she would come to her hometown – Forks, Washington – it was the same thing: father, mother and daughter would get together for a dinner with the promise that this time everything would work out, that nobody would get upset, and dinner would be a lovely occasion for the three of them to talk about their lives. It never happened.

Since Bella was eighteen, and left the small town to attend college, those dinners became mandatory. Once a month she would come to Forks and endure a whole night of pointless bickering. Sometimes she and her father would start it, fighting over how the old cruiser got scratched so many years ago. Other times, her mother would complain about her daughter's neglect and Bella would defend herself by saying she was too busy with college and another argument would start. The three of them couldn't even remember the reason for the disagreement starting in the first place by the time it was over.

Now, at nineteen years old, Bella found herself hiding in her room, the same way she always did as a child when her parents started fighting. Judging by what she overheard before escaping to her hideout, they were wrangling about the divorce. More specifically, it seemed to be about who was to blame for it. Three years ago, Bella thought that her parents' divorce would be the solution for everything. _If they aren't together, they can't fight_. She found out how wrong she was in the very first dinner after they split up. Nothing would keep Renee and Charlie from arguing with each other every chance they got.

Bella sighed in frustration and asked herself why she was still there. She wasn't obliged to hear them dig out the old ghosts for the thousandth time. Without caring about the storm outside, she fled the house in large strides. Her parents didn't even notice her escape.

When Bella left for school, she vowed to leave everything behind. She didn't want any kind of connection with the claustrophobic little town, other than her parents. As a result, she didn't have anyone to run to now.

The street in front of her house was empty and silent, save for the sound of the rain hitting the pavement. For years, Bella thought that sound was annoying, but found herself feeling comforted by it now.

She sat on the bench on the porch, bringing her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. She decided she would stay there for half an hour. Hopefully, Charlie and Renee would have calmed down by then.

Bella allowed herself to get distracted by the bright light coming from the post in front of her and the vision of the water falling. Her mind flitted from one matter to another, without really focusing on any of them. She thought about her upcoming classes, about bills she needed to pay, about if the fishes she bought last week would be dead by the time she got back to her apartment. Bella was thinking that it was amazing that they had lasted so long in her care when she heard a loud thud followed by a masculine grunt. She looked at the sidewalk in front of her house and saw a man had fallen to the ground and was now grimacing as he clutched his back with his right hand. She stood up and ran to him.

"Are you okay?" Bella asked. She had to practically yell to be sure he would hear her over the rain. He nodded and started to get up with her help.

"Yes, thank you. I slipped on something because of this stupid rain."

She made him put an arm around her shoulders to steady himself and they ran back to her bench. It was only when they were safe from the rain and he let go of her that Bella had a chance to look at the stranger's face. She gasped at what she saw. He was tall and pale. His cheekbones were strong and angular, which would have made him look sort of scary if not for his liquid green eyes and messy bronze hair. He was oddly familiar.

"Are you sure you're okay? That was a pretty bad fall you had back there..." Although he was obviously handsome, his face was still twisted in pain. Bella started to get worried. Bella was one to know. She was probably the human form of clumsiness.

"I'm fine. Thank you for your help…" He tailed off and it took a few seconds for Bella to understand he was waiting for her to introduce herself.

"Bella, Bella Swan." Bella was sure she had seen him before, but couldn't put her finger on where and that was starting to aggravate her.

His eyebrows arched a little bit. "You don't happen to go to Seattle University, do you? And take the same biology class as me?"

Then it hit her. He was her eye-candy from her biology class. She used to just look at him when the class would get too boring. She never had the nerve to talk to him, and didn't even know his name. Apparently, he had noticed her too.

"Um, yeah, you go there too?" She decided to play dumb, but he flashed a knowing grin that told her she had been caught.

"Yes. I'm Edward Cullen, by the way." He extended his hand for her to shake it. Their hands met and she felt a bolt of electricity. And that his fingers were wrinkled.

"Geez, how long have you been out in the rain?" Bella inspected his hand and saw that it all was completely wrinkled from being in the water.

"Don't worry about it," he assured her with a smile. "But now you're drenched from the rain because of me. I'm sorry about that."

Bella looked down to examine herself. She was, in fact, completely soaked. Her clothes hugged her tightly. She looked at Edward and noticed that he was even wetter than her, and his clothes were stuck to him and dripping. Bella felt her cheeks warm.

"You should get inside and change," Edward started in a serious voice. "You'll get sick if you stay out here in those clothes." Bella didn't know why, but he seemed genuinely concerned about her. She shook those thoughts away as quickly as they'd arrived. It was impossible for him to be worried about her. He probably just wanted to go inside, but didn't know how to say it.

"You were walking around in this rain, and your clothes are so wet they're dripping. Why wouldn't you get sick from staying in your clothes?" His lips turned into a smirk.

"I don't happen to have a change of clothes on me now," Edward said with a smile, as he patted his pockets as if to prove his point. " and I still have a few streets before I get home." Bella knew that her cheeks would be red now at her stupidity. "Now, as for you, this is your house, right? " Edward asked and Bella nodded quietly. "Then you have no reason to stay here begging for pneumonia."

She shrugged, "I was out here before I saw you fall, so my begging has nothing to do with you." She knew she sounded like a pigheaded infant, but she just didn't want to leave this new guy so soon. There was something about him. He wasn't just her eye-candy anymore. He made her forget about the war that was currently going on in her parents' living room. "So I don't see why I'm more in need of a change of clothes than you are."

He sighed and darted his right hand through his hair. "Okay, what do I need to do to make to get into your house and put on some dry clothes?"

"Come in with me," Bella answered without thinking. "I mean, I'd feel bad if I get dry and you don't." she amended at his questioning, though amused, eyes. "So, you come with me, I loan you some dry clothes and we both get safe from any kind of aftermath. How about that?"

Bella watched nervously. His eyes danced in amusement and a lopsided smile appeared on his face before he nodded. "Deal."

She knew she must have had the stupidest grin on her face at his reply, but it disappeared the second they reached her door. Her parents' curses and yells were audible from outside. She felt her cheeks redden again.

"You know what? I think I'll just stick with the pneumonia," she said, trying to sound nonchalant. He raised an eyebrow at her. Bella turned to him and felt her shoulders fall as she sighed. "Sorry about that. You see, my parents…" She started fidgeting with the zipper on her top, trying to ignore the redness on her face.

"There's nothing to ashamed about," he said, nodding his head toward the door. "Married couples fight sometimes. It's the natural way of things." He shrugged his shoulders to ease her embarrassment.

"Yes. _Married_ couples fight. Couples divorced _over three years_ don't fight." She turned to the door again. "Why can't they just be true to their word and pretend that they don't know each other?" she said, mostly to herself. But he had heard her and replied by squeezing her hand briefly in a show of support.

"I'm really sorry about that, Bella, but you really should go inside and change clothes. I can stay here if you want."

"No, no, no!" She started to get frantic. Bella turned back to him with a slightly panicked face. "You need dry clothes as much as I do. You're going to go in there with me." She grabbed his hand, took a deep breath and yanked the door open. They entered the house trying to make as little noise as possible.

"It sounds like they're in the kitchen," Bella pointed out. The sound of pans being tossed and glasses shattering proved her point. "We can run up to my bedroom to get some dry clothes," Bella whispered to him, as she tried, unsuccessfully, to contain her blush. Edward nodded and followed her upstairs.

When they reached her bedroom, Bella felt like there were millions of little ants running through her body, making her nervous. Bringing Edward up to her bedroom made her feel like giggling, and she worked hard to suppress the urge. Edward seemed just as nervous. He entered the room, just barely, and stayed glued to the wall with his hands shoved in his pockets and a blank face.

"I promise I don't have any bogeymen in my closet," Bella joked, trying to make the mood lighter. Edward chuckled nervously from his place right inside the door.

Bella opened her closet and picked her new clothes. She wanted to put on something to impress Edward, but she only had her comfortable clothes here, as she kept the better ones in her dorm room. With a defeated sigh, she picked a plain blue t-shirt and a new pair of jeans. She turned back and started to walk toward the door.

"I don't believe any of my clothes will fit you, so I'll go get something from my dad's closet, okay?" It was Edward's turn to get frantic.

"Isn't your father the Chief of Police? I really wouldn't like to get arrested for stealing, you know." Bella laughed at his nervousness.

"Don't worry, I'll get things he never uses and you can return them to me before he ever notices they're gone.."

"I really don't think this is a good idea, Bella." His hand was going through his hair nonstop.

"Come on, you're not going to chicken out now, are you?" She gave him a sly smile and any resolution he had of refusing her disappeared.

"Okay, but we should hurry and get out of here."

"I'll get changed in the bathroom and get the clothes for you. I'll be back in a second. Make yourself comfortable," Bella said before sprinting to the bathroom.

Wasting no time, she took a quick shower and changed into her dry clothes. All the while, she was trying to calm herself down. Bella entered her father's room and picked some clothes for Edward. They surely wouldn't fit him perfectly, because Edward was way more built than her father, but it was all she could arrange at that moment.

She went back to her room and found Edward looking at her childhood drawings with a smile on his face. Bella watched him quietly.

"You sure had talent, Bella." He gave her another crooked smile and all the calm Bella had managed to collect in the bathroom flew out the window.

"Um... here you go." She pushed the clothes into his arms, as she stared at the floor fighting off another round of blushing. "The bathroom is at the end of the hall."

Edward put a finger under her chin and lifted her head so that their eyes met. He grabbed her hand and brought it to his lips.

"Thank you very much, Bella," he whispered quietly before making his way toward the bathroom. Bella gripped the headboard, afraid she might fall without support. She sat on her bed and tried to understand everything that had happened in such a small amount of time. She looked at the clock on her nightstand and realized it was about 8 p.m. Only one hour had passed since she went outside looking for silence and ended up finding a Greek god spread out on her sidewalk.

Bella didn't know why exactly, but she really wanted to spend more time with Edward. She had always admired him from afar at school, but never had the guts to approach him. She'd always thought he was way out of her league, but now she knew that he had noticed her too. And while she really was worried about him being stuck in his drenched clothes, she also really liked having his support in her parents' war zone.

Bella found herself wondering what would happen after she and Edward returned to Seattle for school, now that they'd shared this bit of time together. Before she had a chance to consider her options, her door was pushed open, revealing an Edward covered in a baseball jersey and black slacks. He was barefoot and carried his shoes in his hands.

"My shoes got ruined." He looked shyly at her and took a small step into her bedroom. Bella was shamelessly gawking at him. His hair was wet, with a few strands glued to his forehead and even messier than before. The bronze color of it was darker now, looking more auburn. She felt her jaw hitting the floor and fought to close it quickly.

"It's okay. Here." She reached into a drawer, pulled out a pair of socks and tossed them to him.

"Thank you, again." He murmured something and started to pull the socks on. Bella decided that now was a good time to try to get to know Edward Cullen.

"So, can I ask you what you're doing in Forks?" She asked tentatively.

"My parents live here. We used to live in Chicago, but when my brother, Emmett, and I got into SU, they decided to move somewhere closer to us. My mom, Esme, wanted to move to a small town, so Forks seemed perfect." He ended with a shrug. "What about you?"

"I've lived here my whole life." Bella couldn't suppress a sigh. "I always wanted to move somewhere else though. With all the fights between my parents, the lack of friends in school, and the constant rain, I always felt trapped here." She felt him grab her hand in reassurance again and gave him a small smile in return. "But what were you doing walking in the rain without an umbrella or anything? I mean, it's Forks, you should know that it's always raining here." To Bella, walking around Forks without an umbrella was begging for pneumonia.

"I went for a little walk after dinner, but didn't bother to take an umbrella. When the rain got heavier, I started heading back home, but had some issues on the way, as you know." His lopsided grin appeared once again.

"Your parents must be worried about you."

"I called them while you were in your shower," he replied. "I suppose you were hiding out there?" Bella simply nodded. "I don't mean to pry, but does it happen often?"

"Every time we're together. I gave up on the three of us being a happy family a long time ago, but they insist on having these family dinners every month."

A moment of awkward silence started, but it was soon broken by sounds of steps coming upstairs.

"Shit! My parents! Go hide under the bed!" Bella jumped up and started to shove Edward under the bed. Just as she got him out of sight, the door was pushed open, and a very irritated Renee appeared.

"Honey, I'm going home. I just really can't stand another minute near that idiot you call your father!" Renee was nearly screaming.

"It's okay, Mom. Call me when you get home." Bella's voice was pitched, almost giving her nervousness away, but luckily Renee was always too distracted to notice anything. She simply waved and exited the room. As soon as she was gone, Bella dropped under the bed and helped Edward out.

"Are you okay?" She asked concerned.

"Yeah, but it wouldn't hurt to clean under your bed sometimes, you know." Bella felt her cheeks burn.

"I-I'm sorry. I don't live here much anymore and..." She was stammering as she always did when she was embarrassed.

"Bella, I'm just kidding! Relax!" Edward laughed and gave her shoulders a little shake. She took a deep breath and nodded her head while smiling nervously.

Suddenly the room fell quiet again. The rain had subsided to a light drizzle.

"I should probably go…" Edward said half-halfheartedly.

"Okay, just let me see where my dad is." Bella heard Edward sigh, sounding defeated, but just shrugged it off. She tip-toed to her father's room and saw him sleeping soundly on his bed. She went back to her room and motioned for Edward to follow her.

"He is dead asleep. Come on, I'll walk you out." She said in a low voice.

As they made their way down the stairs, Bella felt the familiar tug in her chest that she'd felt when she first thought that this could be the first and last time she would speak to Edward Cullen. Soon, they would be back at school, where she would have to be content with having him just as her eye-candy in biology class.

They reached the front door and Bella leaned against it, trying to delay his departure.

"So, you will be at SU Monday?" She asked him shyly.

"Bright and early."

"I guess I'll see you there then..." Her voice was low and she was bracing herself for rejection.

"Yeah, unless…um, unless you would like to go out with me now?" Edward's voice was low too, and his cheeks were lightly pink.

"Now?" Bella was surprised, but compelled to accept his offer.

"Um, yeah, there is this little café down the street and it's open all night, so if you would like to go…" His right hand was making his bronze hair point in every direction.

"Okay, just give me a second." Bella ran to the kitchen, where several pans and pieces of glass were lying on the floor, and wrote a note letting her dad know where she was in case he woke up before she made it back home. She left it on the table, then ran back to the door where Edward was waiting for her, not a single muscle moved.

"I'm ready. Let's go!" Bella realized that her voice sounded more chipper than she'd ever heard. Edward gave her a crooked smile and opened the door for her.

The street was almost silent. The only sounds present were their voices and laughs, but in that moment there was only harmony between sounds and silence.

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**A.N**: Just a one-shot to pass the time. I hope you guys like it and review!

I started my first long-fic. It's called "Welcome To The Black Magic Show" and features Circus Edward! Check it out! : )

Thanks to TechnicolorSarah for the beta work!

-- Anni.


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